Dylan Dear, Kansas Legislative Research Department, shared the effects of federal budget changes on the Kansas budget with the Kansas Legislative Budget Committee on Tuesday. (Screenshot/Legislative Budget Committee)
TOPEKA — Agriculture is a potential winner of new federal dollars when Kansas officials considered the state’s gains and losses from the “one big, beautiful bill“ act, the legislative budget committee learned Tuesday.
Multiple funding opportunities through expanded agriculture grants were included in the law, covering everything from the agriculture conservation easement program to the conservation stewardship program, said Dylan Dear, assistant director for fiscal affairs at the Kansas Legislative Research Department.
In a presentation backed by a 25-page report on Kansas federal funding, Dear broke down changes outlined in the Trump spending and tax cut law.
The information showed effects on various programs, such as food and nutrition and health care, as well as possible effects of funds that were pulled back, called rescissions, from a variety of agencies and how specific Department of Government Efficiency actions hit the budget.
Committee members questioned total dollar amounts flowing in and out of the Kansas budget as a result of OBBBA, but Dear said there weren’t definitive answers.
“Those DOGE items, in particular, are very difficult to track because they’re not enacted into law in most cases,” Dear said. “So we just tried to identify those ones that we have been able to confirm.”
The memo will be updated constantly, Dear said, calling it a “work in progress” for months. Arriving at an exact dollar amount will be difficult, he said.
“A lot of these are grant opportunities,” Dear said. “We’re looking at either additional federal funding streams being made available, but we’re not going to know how much Kansas is going to receive, or we’re looking at rescinding of unobligated balances. But we are still working with the agencies to determine what specifically has and has not been obligated.”
Budget demands identified
A few known dollar amounts could stretch the state’s budget.
Kansas’ Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program was part of Tuesday discussions because the OBBBA requires the state to cost-share based on its error rate.
That rate is near 10%, which would mean the state would pay 10% of benefit costs.
If the error rate stays at that level in FFY 2026, Dear said the state share would be $40.8 million. The cost share doesn’t go into effect until FFY 2029 but is based on the error rate in either FFY 2025 or 2026.
The OBBBA also increases the state’s share of SNAP administrative costs from 50% to 75%, beginning in fiscal year 2027. The budget would see a nearly $20 million in additional costs annually, Dear said.
Some parts of the federal legislation, such as changed tracking of SNAP recipients subject to work requirements, involve creating new administrative procedures and don’t have a dollar amount attached, Dear said.
Health care programs
Multiple health care programs that receive federal funding, such as Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program, will require administrative costs from the state, Dear said. For instance, to prevent duplicate enrollment, states must create a system by Oct. 1, 2029, to prevent individuals from being enrolled in multiple states, Dear’s testimony said.
About 10 OBBBA changes did not apply to Kansas because the state never expanded Medicaid, Dear said.
“I was kind of wondering in 2028 what the impact would have been for the state of Kansas if we would have passed Medicaid expansion,” said committee chairman Troy Waymaster, R-Bunker HIll.
Dear said the legislative research department had not collected that information but would answer Waymaster’s request. Kansas City Sen. Pat Pettey, a Democrat, asked that the report include what the state would have saved by expanding Medicaid.
One health section may save the state money, as it decreases retroactive coverage of medical bills for Medicaid enrollees from 90 days to 60 days, beginning Jan. 1, 2027, Dear said.
Kansas nursing home advocate Rachel Monger said in July such a change will affect retirement homes and possibly patients because they will have to pay hospital charges from day 61 through 90.
Grant opportunities
The OBBBA offers numerous grant opportunities, Dear said, which leaves the amount Kansas could receive unknown.
In the agriculture arena, the OBBBA expands the agriculture conservation easement program, increasing funding from its current $450 million to $625 million in federal fiscal year 2026, $650 million in fiscal year 2027 and $700 million annually for federal fiscal years 2029 through 2031, Dear said.
The provision may expand federal grant opportunities for Kansas land trusts and local governments to apply for grants, he said.
Increased annual spending in the conservation stewardship program may offer the same opportunity for Kansas producers, he said.
Funding rescissions, eliminations
Several programs saw unobligated funds pulled back to the federal government, while other agencies saw funds disappear, according to Dear’s list.
Dear told committee members he was working with agencies to determine what funds hadn’t been obligated because it’s unclear how much money was returned or need to be returned.
Those included elimination of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention grants operated through the Kansas Department of Health and Environment. The loss of $37.9 million in grants resulted in the elimination of 56 positions at KDHE, Dear’s report said.
Other eliminated or reduced funding included:
$15 million (estimated) for immunization and vaccines for children
$6.1 million (estimated) for a health disparities initiative
$7.9 million (estimated) for epidemiology and lab capacity for prevention and control for emerging infectious diseases
$6.5 million (estimated) for mental health block grants
The report also noted a $8.23 million cut to the Digital Equity Act Grant, which resulted in the loss of resources for planned digital inclusion initiatives, and termination of the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities program, which could affect 14 Kansas projects, depending on where they were in development, Dear said.